BROWN OKS BILLIONS FOR BULLET TRAIN

LOS ANGELES 
Gov. Jerry Brown gave his approval Wednesday to to begin selling $2.6 billion in bonds for construction of the initial 130-mile segment of the bullet train. However, the high-speed rail line still faces major funding, environmental and political challenges before it could connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The San Diego region will get an immediate $100 million from the bond proceeds, according to the San Diego Association of Governments. The money will help lower the price tag for key transit projects and speed them up.

However, those improvements were already moving ahead.

• Blue Line Trolley: The route from San Ysidro to downtown San Diego is targeted for $57.9 million to help rehabilitate tracks, improve grade crossings an add signaling. Overall, the project price tag is an estimated $583 million. Work started about a year ago and is expected to be completed toward the end of 2013.

• Train safety: The Pacific Surfliner segment from San Diego to San Onofre is in line to receive $24 million to help install a federally mandated computerized safety system. North County Transit District rail lines will get $18 million for a similar project.

• San Diego-L.A. rail improvements: The law advances plans to expand the San Diego-L.A.-San Luis Obispo line from one to two tracks. Officials say that could cut the San Diego-L.A. trip by about a third, down to two hours.

Brown was at historic Union Station in Los Angeles to celebrate the project and sign the bill authorizing California to begin selling the bonds.

The move also allows the state to tap $3.2 billion in federal funds for the project.

However, most of the money for the $68 billion project linking the two major cities has yet to be identified.

California voters approved $10 billion in bonds for the project in 2008, and the state’s business plan calls for some backing from private investors and for a private operator to run the system without a state subsidy.

Supporters say it’s rarely known upfront where all the money for such massive transit projects will come from.

The Democratic governor signed the bill, SB1029, at a carefully staged event where cheering politicians and unionized construction workers provided a striking contrast with the political fight earlier this month in the state Senate, where the plan narrowly survived.

The first segment of the line, located in the Central Valley, will be financed by taxpayers, and Brown said there was strong interest from private companies in financing the rest of the project. He didn’t provide any specifics on possible investment or name any of those firms.

“Private investment will come in the second phase,” he said. “Private investment has worked in Europe, and it will work in this project.”

The business plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is overseeing the project, relies on the private sector to “design, build, operate, and maintain a high-speed rail system that is funded by a combination of government investments and future revenues that support the investments of capital from the private sector.”